Dave Eriqat

Ghost Malls: Coming to Your Town

While sympathetic to those retail workers who will lose their jobs, I welcome the coming retreat from our retail-consumption economy. There really is far too much retail activity in this country. And there is far too much consumption as well, especially compared to the diminishing amount of productive activity.

Dave - Erstwhile Urban Wanderer

Is America on a Downward Slope?

I particularly like the idea of term limits for all politicians. This notion of career politicians is nuts. Not only does the ensuing ossification of the political system inevitably lead to corruption (because the most entrenched politicians accumulate tremendous power, and we know what happens next), but the political system becomes incapable of adapting to new realities. I wouldn't be so generous as you, though. I'd limit politicians to a single term. If they truly want to "serve" their country, then one term ought to be plenty.

While you properly criticized excess consumption, you neglected to mention its corollary: production. The U.S. needs to make an effort to restore its productive capability, industrial and agricultural. Those are the fundamental source of real wealth, which make them essential to pay for any "recovery." Of course, restoring our productive capacity will take decades, so the sooner we begin, the better. The notion that we can have an economy based solely on "services" is and always was laughable.

Dave
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The Manipulation of Gold Prices

Nice article!

Naked short selling, which is effectively what is taking place on the COMEX, is tantamount to counterfeiting, but without the hassle of actually printing up any phony documents! It’s all done electronically!

Gosh, it’s a system seemingly designed to encourage fraud. And yet this market which mostly sells phantom metal is the one allowed to set the price of real, physical metal? Are we humans insane, or what?

Dave
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Deflation, Monetary Velocity, and Why Gold's a Buy

I love your “goofy” analogy with the rabbits! But I’ve never seen rabbits run around a tree trunk; squirrels, yes, but not rabbits.

Anyway, as you point out, what’s lost in all this “liquidity” pumping that’s going on is the other side of the equation: borrowing. If people don’t want to borrow – or can’t borrow because they’re in debt up to their eyeballs already – increasing the funds available for lending is utterly useless.

And if I understand your explanation correctly, once all that injected money ceases to be “comatose” and starts velocitating we’re going to see massive inflation.

Like socrateazz, I have grave fears about what Obama might do to "fix" the economy. He's already promised 2.5 million jobs in two years. The only way that can happen in this economy is through public labor, putting people to work in public works projects. I could also see him resorting to rationing and price controls, especially if global shipping doesn't get restarted soon. In case anyone hasn't noticed, the U.S. is highly dependent on a steady flow of energy, merchandise and even food arriving by ship.

Dave
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The Shallowest Generation

I foresaw the housing bubble bursting, but I didn’t foresee the generous bailouts and mortgage forgiveness going on. Had I known that people would be able to stop paying their mortgage, live rent free for a year, and then have their principal reduced and their loans converted from low-interest ARMs to 30-year conventional ones, I’d have bought the most outrageous house I couldn’t afford and let the government and the prudent suckers – like me – bail me out! Now all I can do is steam with resentment at the corrupt system in which we live and the losers who are getting bailed out. I’m “poor,” yet everything I own is paid for. I have no debts, not even for my house, nor even any credit cards. So in that respect I feel very proud of myself. On the other hand, I honestly feel foolish for being so prudent and responsible! I’m also a little angry at my peers who were irresponsible and are now being bailed out.

P.S. I’m a baby boomer, but I’m pretty contemptuous of baby boomers in general, for the reasons you cited.

Dave
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Is This the Gold Buying Opportunity of a Lifetime?

While I completely agree with the fundamentals you cite in support of gold, everybody seems to ignore or underestimate how much power manipulators wield. Today it seems beyond contest that gold and silver prices are being massively manipulated, so much that it's producing bizarre consequences, such as shortages of physical metal and <i>increased<... buying in spite of a falling price!

I've been hearing for years how gold and silver are "gong to the moon," given the fundamentals. The fundamentals keep improving for gold and silver, yet they haven't even left earth yet.

Dave
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Coming Soon: The $600 Trillion Derivatives Emergency Meeting

I know the Star Trek episode well, and I agree it's a good analogy for all these futile bailouts. I've also been sounding the alarm about the derivatives time bomb for a long time. If you like Star Trek, check out my web site at home.earthlink.net/~de_star_trek/ .

Dave
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